Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical art and Schopenhauer's metaphysics: an exploration of the philosophical concept in de Chirico's prose and paintings

The present thesis starts with an outline of the importance de Chirico attached to philosophy and shows that attitude in relation to the reception by his critics. The second chapter examines the informing principles of Schopenhauer's metaphysics in relation to de Chirico's theoretical writings. Subsequently there is a chapter on the figure of Ariadne, demonstrating how Schopenhauerian principles, mythical conceptions and Nietzschean rhetoric are synthesized in de Chirico's Metaphysical Art in a clear attempt to transfer the philosophical programme onto canvas. Chapter IV looks more closely at the labyrinthine nature of de Chirico's paintings and his novel Hebdomeros in accordance with the Schopenhauer-inspired philosophical background: the setting up of ontological puzzles, and the handling of space and time. There follows a discussion in Chapter V of the presentation of objects and figures in these labyrinthine spaces: their exemption from causality, and objectivisation in the attainment of the metaphysical other. The thesis concludes with an exploration of the artist genius against the background of Schopenhauer.